Why People Don’t Want to Work Anymore
As part of my three-layered team-building project, I dive into the phenomenon of why good talent is so hard to find these days.
Ever dreamt up an epic quitting story? Maybe you bust into the office and overturn your desk. Papers fly everywhere and you walk out in a huff. Maybe you stride into your boss’ office and that dam of criticisms you’ve kept at bay for years finally breaks and you spill everything without remorse.
I QUIT, I QUIT, I QUIT
Over the last two years, the US has seen record-breaking numbers of workers turning in their two-weeks notice across industries and not looking back.
This phenomenon has been coined “The Great Resignation” and it was fueled by:
The global pandemic and workers fearful of being exposed to COVID-19 in their workplace and/or giving it to others
Deteriorating working conditions
Elevated cost of living and wages not matching the rise
Burnout
There are many more nuanced factors in the mix, but what I believe to be the most profound is how the life-threatening conditions of the global pandemic inspired people to reevaluate their priorities.
People began to question whether the way they spent 40+ hours of their week was the way they wanted to spend the rest of their lives. By the vast troves of people that quit, the answer was clearly no. Workers began to recognize how they were “living to work” instead of “working to live.”
Timothy Ward said it well: “If you are so tired by the time that you get home from your job to enjoy the things you go to work to have…then what’s the point?”
On top of the burnout that existed before the pandemic, many workers saw no compensation for the extra slack they were asked to pick up in response to COVID-related changes in their workplace.
In this reckoning, we continue to see millions of people opting for a career change or a complete career break leaving companies with more and more vacancies on their teams.
TABLES TURNED
For the first time in many of our lifetimes, we see the worker gaining the upper hand over the employer. There are more jobs available than there are people willing to fill them and applicants are in demand; not jobs.
In order to keep their doors open, companies have to listen, adapt, and implement.
And they have to do it quickly.
Many under-staffed companies may complain that “people just don’t want to work anymore,” because people are lazy or looking for a handout. But the real crux of the matter is that people aren’t lazy, they’re just unwilling to work at an inflexible, underpaying, and over-demanding job.
Generations clash in their mentalities around this idea.
Older folks held out at their 9-5, 40-hour workweeks and now enjoy the pension they worked hard for. When younger generations quit their jobs to travel the world and demand the flexibility of working from home, it’s fair to understand why Baby Boomers and Gen X scoff at the audacity.
With the onset of the internet and the freedom it offers, however, younger generations are merely doing what makes sense with the modern tools at their disposal. They’re disregarding outdated formalities of “going into the office” or “putting in your 40 hours” when they can complete the same amount of work in 20.
Employers are working with an outdated template of how work must be done. Businesses must unlearn and adjust in order to keep up with the changing tides.
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The power dynamic has rightfully shifted, and this leaves a massive opportunity for businesses to begin marketing their positions to reach the quality individuals they want.
In the same way we’d market to a target audience to buy our products, we now have the opportunity to market to target applicants to buy-in to our vision.
Workers are demanding to be regarded as more than just a number, more than just a task-completer. The working class is the lifeblood of our economy, and companies that embrace the beauty of that are the ones that will build solid teams and thrive.